Caulking a bath tub

[markprior22]

Anyone have good advice for doing a good job caulking a tub? I do this every couple of years and it always ends up very sloppy looking and gets moldy relatively quickly.

[Maple Leafs]

"Man, the parody threads for this are going to be hilarious," said no one.

[JPhillips]

I'd lock the door so your wife doesn't catch you.

[panerd]

Anyone have good advice for doing a good job caulking a tub? I do this every couple of years and it always ends up very sloppy looking and gets moldy relatively quickly.

I have nothing to add except that I am in the exact same situation you are. I am actually quite handy with wiring/tiling/plumbing but am terrible at the "artsy" stuff like caulking. It always ends up with like 4 inches of goo all around the tub. I finally just bit the bullet and had one of my friends come and do it right. I swear it is more art than it is handy though. (Not sure if this is the advice you are looking for?)

[dawgfan]

I find the guides they sell for removing the excess caulk never work that well, and I just end up having to smooth out the line with my fingertip. I suppose if you want to be 100% health safe you should wear a glove, since caulks likely contain some amount of solvents that aren't ideal for exposure.

[Autumn]

Only trick I know is fill the tub when you do it, otherwise it cracks later when you fill it up.

[JPhillips]

Since I guess we're going to be serious...

You probably need to go faster. You don't need a real wide bead and going too slowly means you'll have way to much caulk. You'll probably have more caulk than you need for the job, so practice running a couple of beads on some old scrap wood or metal to get a feel for the right tempo.

[Swaggs]

Use masking tape to make the lines straight and, like JPhillips said, run it quickly and without making the beat too wide. Use your finger to smooth over any bubbles (but don't get carried away).

Pull the tape immediately after running it.

[stevew]

Clean the hell out of the surface. Also, they make that sticker caulk stuff that is perfectly straight. Works well with a clean surface. Also I think this is one of those things where you get silicone based latex instead of the cheaper latex stuff.

[Crapshoot]

Forgive me for making the "I love the caulk, everyone loves the caulk" jokes - 4 years of building booths in college with fraternity brothers means we heard that one often. :D

[sterlingice]

I admit it- I only came here to see if there were any good caulk jokes :(

SI

[JediKooter]

Great kid! Now don't get caulky!

[PilotMan]

It is important to try and keep the caulk out of your mouth!

[JediKooter]

I think in order to get straight lines and not make a mess, you need a...caulk blocker.

[Swaggs]

My father works in building and contracting and I used to work with him.

One of my favorite job memories is when we were working for this short, older lady and my dad was climbing up a ladder to try to patch a leak in the roof.

He got about halfway up the ladder and the lady says, "Would you like me to hold your caulk?" He looked at her, thought about it for a minute, and said, "No Donna, I'm good. Thanks." :)

I'm not sure she ever got it, but we still crack up about it.